Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney won 71 percent of Paulding County’s votes as part of his statewide victory in Georgia.

Almost 74 percent — or about 57,000 — of Paulding’s 78,000 registered voters went to the polls in last week’s General Election which included the presidential race and contested Congressional and state races.

Paulding Countians gave 40,771 votes to Romney and 15,779 to President Barack Obama. Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson received 704 votes. Romney won in all 14 precincts. The 71 percent for Romney in Paulding was far above the 53 percent margin he won statewide.

In other races, incumbent U.S. Rep. Tom Graves, R-Ranger, defeated Democrat Danny Grant of Ft. Oglethorpe for the 14th Congressional District seat. Graves received 73 percent of the vote in the 12-county district which includes Paulding County.

Paulding voters also overwhelmingly voted for the charter school amendment to the state constitution which won convincingly statewide.

The county’s voters tallied 62 percent in favor of the charter school amendment. The measure will allow those seeking applications for charter schools to appeal a local school board’s denial to a state commission.

Newcomers elected last week included Richard Manous, who was elected to the county school board District 4 seat, and Dave Carmichael, who was elected to the County Commission Post 1 seat.

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